by Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY

by Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- Walking into a restaurant in the theater district after a matinee performance of their new Broadway musical, Kinky Boots, Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper are greeted like homecoming heroes.

Two women beam and raise their glasses. Others applaud. Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce, grabbing a bite before co-starring nearby in the comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, stand up to offer congratulations.

This is primarily Fierstein's crowd, of course. The performer and playwright had 10 previous Broadway shows and four Tony Awards under his belt when Boots, for which he wrote the libretto, began previews at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre earlier this month, in preparation for an April 4 opening.

Lauper, in contrast, is a newbie, at least creatively speaking: While she appeared on stage here in a 2000 concert series and a 2006 revival of The Threepenny Opera, Boots marks the singer/songwriter's first foray into writing music and lyrics for the theater.

So perhaps it's fitting that as they tuck into a booth, Fierstein refers to his platinum-haired partner, cheekily but with obvious affection, as "my daughter." In truth, she is, at 59, only one year younger. But Fierstein has been a key source of both information and inspiration, she says, in their four years working on Boots, which had its world premiere in Chicago last fall.

Based on a 2005 film of the same title and the true story that inspired it, Boots traces the unlikely bond between Charlie, a young man trying to save the shoe factory he has inherited from his father, and Lola, a drag queen who, in his quest for the perfect pair of stilettos, helps Charlie turn the business, and his life, around.

Charlie and Lola don't get involved romantically. "It's not a gay thing," Fierstein points out. "It's bigger than that," adds Lauper, who has long championed gay and transgender rights -- "civil rights," as she prefers to call them.

"I saw two men in this story who were being destroyed by what they thought their fathers wanted them to do," says Fierstein. "What they need to do is learn how to accept someone else, so that they can accept their fathers, and then accept themselves. That's a lot to do in a musical."

Fierstein thought that Lauper, a fellow native Noo Yawkuh and mutual fan, would be up the task. "She has a natural sense of drama, as you may have noticed," he says. Lauper had also grown up listening to recordings of classic musicals: "I'm sure she and I wanted to play the same roles," he quips.

Even so, his expectations were surpassed. "I thought we would let Cyndi start with club (music), to ease her in. But she tackled one of the hardest things first, the opening number, and wrote a song where every person involved had a separate voice. Many composers write songs that sound like them, but she knew, instinctively, that every person had a story."

Lauper insists, "I was learning on my feet. It helped that Harvey is such a great storyteller. He moves you to tears, and then makes you laugh the next second."

Both have been encouraged by audience response so far. "When the curtain comes down, you hear a roar -- the sound just comes at you," Fierstein says. "It's almost frightening."

Lauper recalls a performance during the Chicago run, where "this one guy was really depressed when he came in. I think he had been fighting with his wife. After the first number, he was like..." She pantomimes reluctant applause, then shows his reaction to the next song, clapping with a little more enthusiasm.

Before long, Lauper beams, "We got him. He started laughing, and he let go of the fight, or whatever had been bothering him. He lost it -- and that felt great."